Pablo Cawich, Mayor of Belmopan
by Charles Gladden
BELMOPAN, Mon. Apr. 7, 2025
The Belmopan City Council is insisting that all small vendors conducting business at the Belmopan Market Plaza in the center of the Garden City carry a trade license, as they believe the market is being operated illegally.
David Zabaneh, owner of Belmopan Market Plaza
Beginning its operation in 2021, the Belmopan Market Plaza has become the central hub for all farming and commercial vendors in the city on the designated market days. The market hosts between 130 and 135 vendors weekly, up to 300 different vendors annually, and over 10,000 visitors. It is run by David Zabaneh, who signed a 30-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Belmopan City Council under the administration of Sharon Palacio, the city’s previous mayor.
Both parties signed the MOU, a fixed arrangement for a blanket trade license annual fee of $30,000. However, the new Belmopan City Council administration now says the MOU is null and void, and is pressuring Zabaneh and his vendors.
“They’re trying to say that we’ve been operating the market illegally for the last four years, which, we have a perfectly good trade license. We have an MOU with the Belmopan City Council. I think at this point, they’re trying to undermine anything that the previous mayor, Sharon Palacio, did. They have a track record for that,” said Zabaneh.
“… I think it’s an attack on owners. Myself being a small business owner, I can’t stand for it. I’m not going to have them come in and bully our people and stop them from conducting business. We’re here to nurture businesses, watch them grow and [become] successful. That’s what we’re into,” he added.
Zabaneh continued, “The entire Trade License Board came out. This wasn’t a decision made by the mayor herself. We had DOE did their inspection, fire department, health department, [and] we walked the grounds. We did everything we needed to do by the book, and the Trade License Board was the one that approved our trade license. So, subsequently, everything has remained the same. We operated within our rights; and they can’t just come in and revoke a trade license for no particular reason, because they feel like the mayor acted outside of her jurisdiction.”
A letter was sent to Zabaneh on April 1 with the information from the BMP City Council, but he said he thought it was someone playing a joke on him. However, after further investigation, it was revealed to be genuine.
“I thought it was a joke and laughed at first; and then I said, let me call the mayor. He didn’t pick up [the phone]. So, I had other people reach out, [and it was the] same thing. They kept quiet on it. So, I called my attorney. I said, ‘Hey, [I] receive this letter. We need to respond’. So we already sent them a response… They’ve been putting pressure on us every market day. They send the traffic officers to issue tickets on private property to parked vehicles. So that’s something they’ve been doing since December, trying to intimidate, and it’s just reached that point where we’re not going to sit back and take it lightly; and we have a solid case,” Zabaneh mentioned.
The Belmopan City Council highlighted in the letter that Zabaneh’s vendors would be individually assessed on Monday, April 7, by members of the Trade License Board to determine how much each stall is going to be paying for their license. Zabaneh reassured his vendors that they don’t have to comply with their demands.
“Our vendors already know that they do not have to comply with that, you know. They’re saying it’s illegal. If they want to go to court, we can go to court, and then let the court decide if it is illegal. But, you know, it hasn’t been for the last four years; so let’s see how it goes,” he said.
The mayor of Belmopan, Pablo Cawich, spoke with the media on Monday, April 7, and denied the intimidation tactics Zabaneh mentioned. He further noted that a meeting was held with Zabaneh, highlighting the alleged issues found by the Council, and attempted to solve them. But Mayor Cawich says that Zabaneh rejected their proposal.
The MOU was discussed with its annual fee of $30,000, but Mayor Cawich says the Council is losing revenue.
“Market areas used to generate over $300,000 a year for Belmopan. That has now been cut to just $30,000… in the previous years up to April 2025, the maximum funds we have received from the Belmopan Market Plaza is $30,000 annually in installments. So, for now, I think we have received their first payment for the 2025 year, and it’s only the first installment, which is a $5,000 installment,” he said.
“We were approached by the Belize Tax Service last year, requesting information as to the details or the authority which the Council has granted to the Belmopan Market Plaza. We presented the 2021 MOU, and after reviewing it, they saw some of its major issues. A tax specialist pointed out that there is no such thing as a blanket coverage; we must ensure that things operate legally and happen legally. So, the legality of the operation has to be rectified. It will have to be a solution that is by the law. So that would be our only, our main restriction, that we will not agree to something that would violate the law,” Mayor Cawich mentioned.